


These Summer Days

by SparkleDragons



Series: TAZ Snippets [5]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Dragon AU, dragon!angus, dragon!kravitz, dragon!taako, drangus, i hurt angus a little bit. just a little
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-21 04:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14908431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparkleDragons/pseuds/SparkleDragons
Summary: Taako finds a silver dragon hatchling while out hunting.





	These Summer Days

**Author's Note:**

> Pffff. What even are titles? Anyways this is a request I got on tumblr so enjoy!

Taako’s copper wings skillfully caught the air as he gracefully soared over the hill lands. The harsh heat of the summer sun beat pleasantly against his upper scales as he scanned the grasses below for a meal. Perhaps he’d come across some wild horses. He might get lucky and land himself a griffon or chimera, but for now the only creatures to catch his eye were things like goats and rabbits; not worth his time.  
  
The dragon huffed a sigh of boredom. It was a slow day and he’d been hoping to take a trip to the small humanoid village and play some of those money-based games they seemed to care for so much. Taako enjoyed wording his way around their trivial rules, even if he never much desired the meager copper and occasional gold pieces at stake. He did, however, have a rather large collection of shoes by now and many of the townsfolk knew not to play games with the magic-inclined elf he made himself out be. A shame, he rather enjoyed that disguise.

If he returned to the layer now maybe Kravitz would be willing to switch off hunting duties for the day. He’d done the last three shifts, one more couldn’t hurt. Taako’d make it up to him next time.

As he mulled over the possible excuses he could weave to convince him a traveling caravan caught his attention. Eight carts in total, passing through the thin trails snaking through the hills. Looked like he might get a chance to play today after all.  
  
Taako beat his wings in the direction of the humanoids, even from a distance he could hear their shouts of concern as a creature as large as himself approached. Dumbasses. Didn’t they know the difference between a chromatic and a metallic. He wasn’t gonna do anything except maybe making walking a bit more painful for them. Even then they could just ride in the carts anyways.  
  
His landing shook the narrow path, sending rocks tumbling down the hillside. The travelers struggled to control their horses, startled by the apex predator suddenly in their midst. Taako chose to take his eleven form, to ease tensions. Most mortals didn’t fancy talking up to a fifteen foot flying reptile if they could help it.  
  
“Hail and well met travelers!” Taako greeted, flashing a ever so slightly devious smile. “What brings you to these hills?” He didn't approach, keeping his distance to gauge their reactions.  
  
The caravaners talked nervously amongst each other and Taako did them the courtesy of not trying to listen in. They were mostly human, though he caught sight of a gnome and two elves within the crowd as well. They were all caring some form of weaponry. He liked to see that. These were dangerous hills and he’d watched one too many traveler meet their doom due to lack of defense. Eventually a rough-looking human was pushed forward. He had a scraggly beard and it looked like his cloths had seen better days. It also seemed he could do with a bath. As much as humans smelled this one in particular made Taako’s nose wrinkle even from a distance.  
  
“A-apologies m-mighty dragon… sir,” he licked his lips nervously. “We weren’t aware this- uhm.. We weren’t aware this land was your territory.”  
  
Taako laughed. He liked how he laughed in this form, high-pitched and light instead of deep and earth-shaking. He also liked when humans thought they had to be all polite and shit. Like, as long as they didn’t insult him or something he was fine with informality. And it wasn’t like he _owned_ this land. He just lived here. Owning shit like that was a chromatic thing.  
  
“Cool it, Kimosabi. Just looking for a game. Do you like games?” Taako’s grin widened and he steepled his fingers at an angle. He really hoped they’d say yes. He wanted to quickly trick these people out of their footwear and be on his way. He didn’t need to go through the whole ‘here’s why we should play a game together’ bit.  
  
“Y-yes?” The man said, although he didn’t really sound that confident. Ah well, Taako wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.  
  
“ _Wonderful_ ,” Taako lilted and approached, allowing a deck of cards to appear in his hand. “So. What kind of-“ His usually spiel was cut off by a high-pitched whine sounding from somewhere among the caravans. The noise immediately set Taako on edge and he raised his fancy elven ears to search for the source.  
  
“ _Shit_ ,” one of the elves cursed. _Di’an go shut that thing up_ , she hissed to the other in elvish. Now _that_ was insulting. Did they think Taako would take a form he didn’t know the language of? He heard the whine again and felt a snarl building in his throat.  
  
“Is there something you wan to tell me?” he practically growled to the travelers, the thieves. “Maybe something concerning a lost hatchling?”  
  
The entire caravan was on edge as Taako’s angry gaze slid from person to person. He could practically smell the fear coming off them.  
  
“W-we promise we…” the human who addressed him before spoke up. “We promise we just found it. It-it was alone, and-“ another call of the scared wyrmling interrupted him.   
  
“Yeeeaaaah,” Taako narrowed his eyes, “that's not gonna fly.”  
  
Taako was back in his dragon form in seconds and spewing gas over the humanoids attempting to draw their weapons. As the vapor entered their lungs and circulatory system Taako could see their movements slowing. The chemicals in his breath were locking up their muscles and sinking into their nervous system. He’d grin and take a moment to appreciate his power if he weren’t currently ripping apart caravans searching for a lost dragon child.  
  
He found him in the third cart, curled up in a too-small cage and bound with leather straps. Taako snarled angrily and his tail lashed, sending carts and likely some people over the edge of the trail. Pricks along his back legs alerted him to the humans jabbing at him with their swords. The silver mother they took the hatchling from must have been younger than him to have been defeated by these pathetic creatures. Their attempts were no more than a nuisance and he brought his head around to kill a magic user channeling her spell with a quick snap.

 

Anyone smart enough to hang back were now running as fast as their legs could carry them. A few pulled themselves onto horses cut loss in Taako’s raid. He payed them no mind, instead reaching down to rip apart the bars of the cage.  
  
The wyrmling whined again, unable to do much else with the fucking bindings holding his wings down and mouth together. Taako reached a paw in and carefully scooped him out. He was too warm for a silver dragon. Admittedly Taako didn’t know much about them, they lived high in the mountains and until now he’d never actually seen one before, but he knew they weren’t supposed to be warm-scaled dragons.  
  
Cradling the dragonling close to his chest, shielded as much as he could from the sun’s heat, Taako took flight. The beating of his wings alone knocked another cart down the hill face, but that wasn’t thorough enough. He sucked in a breath and let lose a blast of rock-melting acid, leaving a gaping wound in the side of the landscape. He hoped some of the humanoids was caught in it.  
  
He flew to the layer as fast as his wings would carry him. He took the secret entrance a hill or two away from the ruins decorating what Kravitz had made into the leading cave for travelers to wander in. On some days Taako passed his time working his way through his own traps and illusions, improving and altering them to his wishes. He didn’t have time for that now.  
  
He slipped through the narrow opening in the cliff-side, still keeping the too-still wyrmling to his chest. Inside was much cooler, the deep earth forever shielded from the sun’s heat.  
  
“Kravitz!” he called through the tunnels. He didn’t wait for a response before worming his way through to the main treasure room. He _knew_ he had some enchanted bullshit that made things colder in here somewhere. Coins, trinkets, and gems cascaded from the piles as he dug though them to the best of his ability while cradling a hatchling.  
  
“Taako?” Kravitz entered the cavern wearily. The golden serpent tended to spend his days off sleeping if he could. He liked to be alone sometimes and Taako could respect that on most occasions. This was not one such moment. “Taako what are you doing?”  
  
Taako paused his search for a brief moment to shove the child in Kravitz’s direction.  
  
“What is… Fuck is that a silver wyrmling!?” Kravitz started, taking the small form from Taako’s hold. “Where did you find him? The nearest silver territory is miles from our boarder.” The quite snaps of breaking leather told Taako Kravitz was snapping the bindings. Good. He hadn’t had time in his rush.

 

Ah! A glint of enchanted blue satin caught Taako’s eye and he reached through to grab the blanket of ice. This thing was meant to keep stuff cold instead of warm. A curious object to be sure. The things mortals came up with.

  
He turned to drape the fabric over the panting little dragon and immediately watched him relax, letting out a sigh of contentment. His scales looks so dull and his now released wings hung loose at his sides, too exhausted to bother tucking them in.

  
  
“Taako where did you find a wyrmling?” Kravitz repeated, settling the silver dragon into a pile of coin.

  
  
“A caravan train. Had him locked up in there and thought I wouldn’t notice.” Taako sniffed at the sickly hatchling.

  
  
A concerned rumble made it’s way up from Kravitz’s throat. He reached a claw forward to lightly nudge the young dragon. The wyrmling was looking up at them intently despite his bleary eyes.

  
“Do-uh… Do you have name?” Kravitz asked and yeah that’d probably be better than continuing to refer to him as ‘the wyrmling’ or ‘the hatchling.’

  
  
“Angus,” the wyrmling, er, _Angus_ replied, scratchy voice barely over a whisper. Taako had to strain to hear it.

 

“What happened to yah, Ango?” Crisis seemingly averted, Taako climbed up on the pile of treasures to lie down. He’d probably have to go out again later since he hadn’t actually caught anything but that was a problem for future Taako.

 

Angus curled in on himself. It was at least a minute before he said anything. “It was an ambush, sir. Mother didn’t see it coming. I don’t think they expected to find me afterwards.”

 

Kravitz hissed through gritted teeth and and glared at the wall. “Some mortals are… especially vile.”

  
  
“Thank you for helping me. I’ll get out of your scales as soon as I’m well enough.”

  
  
Taako studied Angus for a brief moment. He was already looking better but certainly wasn’t in any shape to be on his own. The bindings had left some nasty wounds along his wings and snout. Bahamut above, he did not feel like looking after a wyrmling; but even without the heat sickness Angus was probably too young to be on his own.  
  
“Yeah that’s bullshit,” Taako rolled his eyes.

  
  
“Taako, language” Kravitz scolded, gesturing towards Angus.

  
  
“It’s ok you can curse in front of me,” Angus quickly interjected.

 

“Cool. That’s bullshit and we’re not gonna kick you out.”

 

Angus sheepishly pulled his head in towards his body and said, “O-oh. I don’t want to be a bother. Really. I can-“  


“Angus,” Kravitz interrupted, “it’s a mute point until your healthy anyways. At least agree to stay until then?”

  
“I-“ Angus started, about to protest.

  
Taako make a short humming sound in the back of his throat and stared pointedly at Angus once he had his attention.

 

“Alright. I’ll stay until I’m healthy.”

  
Taako nodded ever so slightly and set his head back down to the pile. There was no fucking way he was letting this kid leave even once he _was_ healthy, but they’d get to that another day. For now he’d rest and heal.

  
  
A soft nudge in his side prompted Taako to irritably open his eyes again. Kravitz was looking down at him expectingly.

 

“Can I help you?” Taako smugly grinned.

 

“Hunting?"

 

The smile quickly fell from Taako’s face. “Shit…”


End file.
